1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a quick-fermented feed, its preparation and uses, more particularly, to a quick-fermented feed obtained by incorporating a plant concentrate material into an alkali-treated agricultural product waste to lower the pH to a level below 10, inoculating a lactic acid bacterium into the mixture, and fermenting the resulting mixture, and to its preparation and uses.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Wastes of agricultural products which are rich in cellulose and hemicellulose such as bagasse, ears and stems of corn, trunks of koaliang, rice hulls, rice straws, wheat and barley straws, shells of peanuts, barks, blocks and chips of woods, bamboos, and bamboo grasses can be used as a fuel. However, there is no other beneficial use. At least several hundreds million tons of such wastes are produced yearly all over the world, and this results in a problem for treating these wastes.
Unlike humans, pigs and poultry with a simple stomach, ruminants such as cattle and sheep which feed on grass ingest plants' cellulose and hemicellulose to generate energy, and inherently and physiologically require them as roughage.
Increasing consumption of livestock products such as beef and dairy products resulted in a remarkable progress in the diversified livestock-farming. As a result, an intensive livestock-farming has been developed to breed many cattle in a restricted small area or in a small shed while forcing them to stand in the same location, and this results in a problem of supplying sufficient feed grasses and in an urgent demand for roughages containing cellulose and hemicellulose which can be substituted for feed grasses.
There have long been conducted many trials to utilize wastes of agricultural products as roughages. However, these wastes contain a relatively large amount of lignin, which are tightly linked together with fibers such as cellulose so that even ruminants cannot assimilate them well, and the wastes have an unsatisfactory taste and a relatively poor nutritive value.
To improve the nutritive value of these wastes of agricultural products, there are many proposals to increase their digestibility by decomposing lignin to soften their texture. In the case of bagasse, it is treated with an alkaline reagent, then fermented. In such an alkaline treatment, as described in "Biotechnology and Bioengineering", Vol.26, pp.426-433 (1984), sodium hydroxide, calcium hydroxide and sodium carbonate are known as alkaline reagents. In the fermentation of an alkali-treated bagasse, for instance, as described in "Animal Feed Science and Technology", Vol.9, pp.1-17 (1983), an ensilage of an alkali-treated bagasse using sodium hydroxide is known.